No abstract available.
Myasthenia Gravis* ; Pregnancy*

BACKGROUND: The growth of elderly population increased the need for oral health care. Elderly patients with poor teeth alignment needs more attention with orthodontic treatment METHODS: Elderly patients visiting department of orthodontics, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital between 2000-2004 were treated with fixed appliances in one or both dental arches. Treatment plans were different from than that of younger patients and included uncommon and strategic removals of teeth and prosthesis. RESULTS: There was decrease in orthodontic treatment forces with increasing age, and the observation made from this study was favorable in the patients' as well as in the orthodontist's, point of view. It was possible to move the remaining teeth considerably, and the retention was made with various fixed appliances. CONCLUSIONS: Orthodontic treatment is not limited by patient age. However, it is wise not to extend treatment goals too far beyond the patients' objective needs
Aged* ; Dental Arch ; Heart ; Humans ; Oral Health ; Orthodontics ; Prostheses and Implants ; Tooth

No abstract available.
Aluminum Hydroxide* ; Aluminum* ; Korea*

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is one of the common diseases which family physicians encounter to manage. Various research proved that appropriate aerobic exercise had effect on lowering blood pressure efficiently. This study was to find out the status of exercise, the change of exercise according to time and its predicting factors in hypertensive patients. METHODS: A total of 193 of the followed-up hypertensive patients of family physicians in Seoul and kyoungkido from May 11, 2001 to June 10, 2001 were interviewed by doctor according to the previously designed structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Eighty two patients (42.57) were male and mean and was 57.4 +/- 9.9 fears. Using Kaplan-Meier's method, 8% of non-exercise group (N= 115) in diagnosing hypertension started exercise after 1 fear and 40%, after 5 years. Otherwise, 5% of exercise group(N=78) stopped exercise after 1 year and 30%, after 5 years. The characteristics of 5 exercise groups according to sex, age, level of education and adequacy of exercise showed significant difference. In average blood pressure, lately started group showed the lowest (137/84 mmHg) and non-exercise group, the highest (146/91 mmHg) In the degree of recommendation. sporadic group showed the highest and non-exercise group, the lowest which showed significant difference (p =0.0024) . CONCLUSION: I conclude that lately started group among non-exercise group and continuous exercise group were mainly affected by recommendation to exercise of physician. As well as exercise, other nonpharmacologic treatment should be promoted by physician as an important strategy for treatment of hypertension.
Blood Pressure ; Education ; Exercise ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Physicians, Family* ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

End-to-side neurorrhaphy had been firstly reported at the beginning of this century, but no further clinical reports have been released. In some cases of end-to-end neurorrhaphy, donor nerve incision or even sacrification is inevitably necessary. In doing end-to-side neurorrhaphy, has not been widely accepted because previous results were not satisfactory. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the applicability of end-to-side neurorrhaphy in rats. Twenty female Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing approximately 200-250 g(232.50+/-12.6g) were used. In 10 rats, their right and left peroneal nerves were cut and the distal end of peroneal nerves were end-to-side neurorrhaphied to the tibial nerve. On the right side, the epineurium was left intact and on the left side, it was removed. The proximal end of peroneal nerves were imbedded in the thigh muscle. After 6 months, eletrophysiologic tests, including nerve conduction velocity, the amplitude and the areas of action potential of the tibial cranial muscle were done and then all rats were sacrificed for histologic analysis. The other 10 offspring rats were raised and used for control group. The mean weight of the tibial cranial muscle was 1.74(+/-0.30)g on the right side, 1.54(+/-0.31)g on the left side and 1.97(+/-0.28)g in the control group, which was statistically not significant. The number of muscle fibers in x 100 magnification was 106.10(+/-4.28) on the right side, 109.67(+/-4.69) on the left side and 107.80(+/-4.64) in the control group, which was also not significant. The amplitude and width of muscle action potential were not statistically different among the right side, the left side and in the control group. However, the nerve conduction velocity was bilaterally delayed if compared to control group. In histologic analysis, the presence of epineurium did not impact the results and end-to-side neurorrhaphy were successfully regenerated in all rats. End-to-side neurorrhaphy seem to be a functionally and histologically tolerable alternative when end-to-end neurorrhaphy is not available.
Action Potentials ; Animals ; Female ; Humans ; Nerve Regeneration* ; Neural Conduction ; Peripheral Nerves* ; Peroneal Nerve ; Rats* ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Thigh ; Tibial Nerve ; Tissue Donors

No abstract available.
Myelodysplastic Syndromes*

A clinical analysis was done on 134 cases with bronchial asthma who were admitted to the Department of Pediatrics Yeungnam University from May 1987 to October 1991. The results were as follows: 1) The peak age of bronchial asthma was under 2 years. The sex ratio of male to female was 2.9:1. 2) The outbreak of bronchial asthma was most common in fall, especially in September. 3) The past history of other allergic diseases were present in 22.4% of patients (30/134 cases), and the previous bronchiolitis in infancy were experienced in 12.7% of patients (17/134 cases). 4) According to the skin test for allergens done by RAST, the most common allergens were Mites and House dust. 5) Eosinophilia (T.E.C>250/min) was found in 29.1%t of patients, and elevated lgE level (>200 IU/ml) was found in 63.2% of patients. 6) No significant differences in the serum lgE level were found between male and female patients. No significant differences in the serum lgE level were found between asthma patients with and without other allergic diseases. 7) The serum lgE level of school aged patients was significant higher than that of preschool aged (p<0.01).
Allergens ; Asthma* ; Bronchiolitis ; Dust ; Eosinophilia ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mites ; Pediatrics ; Sex Ratio ; Skin Tests

BACKGROUND: Although vitiligo is generally recognized as a single entity, the etiology is complex. There have been three hypotheses to explain vitiligo, (1) neural hypothesis, (2) the self-destruct hypothesis, and (3) the autoimmune hypothesis. And recently, there have been several reports about mineral status in vitiligo patients. Hair minerals may provide a continuous record of nutritional status and exposure to heavy metal pollutants. So, analysis of hair minerals in vitiligo patients may help to explain the etiology of vitiligo. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to compare the hair mineral concentrations between vitiligo patients and normal controls. METHODS: Hair mineral concentrations were measured in 30 normal controls and 30 vitiligo patients. We measured the contents of fifteen nutritional elements (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cu, Zn, P, Fe, Mn, Cr, Se, B, Co, Mo, S), eight toxic elements (Sb, U, As, Be, Hg, Cd, Pb, Al), and fifteen additional elements (Ge, Ba, Bi, Rb, Li, Ni, Pt, Tl, I, V, Sr, Sn, Ti, W, Zr) by an inductive coupled plasma mass spectrometry. RESULTS: In vitiligo patients, the contents of Fe, Mg, P, Cr, Se, Zr were significantly higher than normal controls, and B, Al, W were significantly lower than normal controls. In male patients, K, Cr, B, Rb contents were higher than female and in female patients, Ca, Ba, Sr contents were higher than male. In vitiligo patients, Hg showed positive relationship with increasing age, and B, Pb, Sn, Zr contents showed negative relationship with age. CONCLUSION: Hair mineral analysis was performed with vitiligo patients and normal controls. We concluded that the hair mineral analysis will be useful in researching various skin diseases including vitiligo and may give the clues of etiology of various skin diseases.
Female ; Hair* ; Humans ; Male ; Mass Spectrometry ; Minerals* ; Nutritional Status ; Plasma ; Selenium ; Skin Diseases ; Vitiligo*

The pulsed laser lithotripsy has been used in the treatment of urinary calculi. We treated 153 patients of stones, via the pulsed dye laser(Technomed Pulsolith) with 7.5 and 6.5 F. rigid ureteroscope between January 1992 and January 1995. Stones were in bladder(4 cases), upper ureter(17), mid ureter(31) and lower ureter(101). The laser lithotripsies were applied for impacted stones and relatively large stones(more than 6 mm) The success rates according to location were 47%(8/17) in upper ureter, 77%(24/31)in middle ureter, 95%(96/101)in lower ureter and 100%(4/4) in bladder and mean success rate was 86% (132/153). There were 21 failures due to upward migration(9 cases), poor visual field(7), laser resistant stone(3) and malfunction of laser(2). Complications were showed in 28 cases that were gross hematuria(16 cases), ureteral perforation(6), fever(4) and ileus(2), but most of them might be related to ureteroscopy rather than laser, and all of them were resolved with conservative management. So laser lithotripsy is safe and effective method of middle and lower ureteral calculi, and upward migration of stones, the major cause of failure may be resolved by use of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy and flexible ureteroscope.
Humans ; Lithotripsy ; Lithotripsy, Laser* ; Shock ; Ureter ; Ureteral Calculi ; Ureteroscopes ; Ureteroscopy ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Calculi

PCR implication using the primers for gag, pol and rev genes in BLV (bovine leukemia virus) proviral DNA and syncytium assay were carried out for the Korean native goats experimentally infected with bovine leukemia virus to investigate pathogenesis of BLV in the goats, and to establish a model animal for BLV infection. The oligonucleotide primers used in PCR revealed very high specificity, The minimal amount of FLK-BLV cellular chromosomal DNA to detect the integrated BLV proviral DNA was 10 ng. The peripheral blood lymphocytes from the goat infected with BLV were examined at regular intervals by PCR amplification and syncytium assay. Pol or gag genes were detected in none of three infected goats at the 1st week post-infection (p.i.). At the 4th week p.i., one of three goats showed the amplified gag gene. Thereafter detection rates for the genes were increased, indicating that the BLV proviral genes were integrated in all of the lymphocytes from three goats, at the 16th weeks p.i., when it was evident in syncytium assay that the lymphocytes from all of three goats were infested with infective BLV. Investigating the tissues from the necropsied goats at the 8th month p.i., the amplified BLV proviral genes and infective BLV were detected in all of the peripheral lymphocytes from three infected-goats. Among various tissues examined, the amplified BLV proviral genes were observed in spleen and superficial cervical, mandibular and retropharyngeal lymph nodes, and the infective BLV, in superficial cervical and mandibular lymph nodes. It was assumed that the Korean native goat was quite susceptible to BLV infection, indicating that the goat could be a good model animal for BLV.
Animals ; Cattle ; Deltaretrovirus Infections ; DNA Primers ; DNA* ; Enzootic Bovine Leukosis* ; Genes, gag ; Genes, rev ; Giant Cells ; Goats* ; Leukemia ; Leukemia Virus, Bovine* ; Lymph Nodes ; Lymphocytes ; Polymerase Chain Reaction* ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Spleen